A-League soccer star Angel Torres has told a jury he never raped a young woman after taking her home from a nightclub.
The Mariners striker said when the woman was in his bedroom and decided she wanted to go home and not have sex, he just asked her if he had done something wrong before she left.
Speaking through a Spanish interpreter on Tuesday, Colombian-born Torres told a Gosford District Court jury how he had played soccer professionally in Portugal and Malta before moving to Australia in 2023 to play for the Mariners.
He said he went to Sirens nightclub at Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast just after midnight on March 24, 2024 with a number of Mariners players, including Nicholas Duarte, Bailey Brandtman and Miguel Di Pizio, and was upstairs when he made eye contact with a young woman, now aged 22, and called her over.
Torres, 24, said the woman used Google translate on her phone to help them communicate before they danced and kissed.
He showed the woman his Instagram account, where he has more than 11,000 followers, and told her he played for the Mariners.
“She was saying good things about me,” Torres told the jury.
“She said I had a nice smile and I smelt good.”
The footballer, who has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual intercourse without consent involving deprivation of liberty, said he took the woman back to his home but denied raping her.
Crown prosecutor Andrew Lynch said the woman alleged they had been kissing in Torres’ bedroom when he took her belt and wrapped it around her neck. Torres denied this ever happened.
Mr Lynch said when the woman told Torres she wanted to leave, he said “what, you don’t want?”.
The woman alleged Torres digitally penetrated her and did not stop even though she was screaming “no, no, no”.
The prosecutor said Torres laughed at the woman when she demanded to know where her pants were before grabbing her and pushing her up against the wall for 45 seconds.
Mr Lynch said Torres told the woman she was crazy and sick in the head when she started crying.
When the woman managed to get outside, she sent a text at 2.44am to a friend saying “I need help”.
Torres allegedly followed the woman and stood over her as she sat on the road before putting his hands on her, stopping her from getting up.
The woman started screaming “help, help”, and Torres told her “you’re going to ruin my career”.
She claimed she told Torres “just let me go, I won’t say anything”.
The woman texted her friends and they found her hiding in bushland, the court was told.
Torres told the jury he and the woman had been in the bedroom kissing and touching when he consensually digitally penetrated her before he stood up and asked her if she wanted to have sex.
He said she told him she just wanted to go home and as she was getting dressed, he asked her if something had happened.
Torres said the woman repeated she wanted to go home without explanation and then she left.
He denied all the woman’s accusations, saying he never laughed at her, grabbed her, called her crazy or yelled at her.
Torres said he followed the woman outside because he was worried about her being outside at nearly 3am.
“For me, in my country, this is something very dangerous to do,” he said.
Torres told the jury at one stage the woman sat down outside and screamed for help.
“I said ‘what’s happening? I’m not doing anything to you’.”
Torres has also pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of sexual intercourse without consent, one count of intimidation intending to cause fear, and two counts of assault.
The trial before Judge Tanya Bright continues.